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Frugal Me #1 – Learning Calligraphy

Today I am starting the first post of a series called Frugal Me, where I will tell you about the ways I saved some serious cash on my wedding. I don’t have much of a budget at all, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting things that I simply can’t afford. So I am doing what I can to eat my cake and have it too!

One of these things was Calligraphy for the invitations and other paper goods for the wedding. It can be really pricey and doesn’t leave room for last minute additions (I think I would have a panic attack if I didn’t have the option to do things last minute!) Being pretty artsy I saw it as a way to save some cash if I do it myself and after my mom told me that I can’t (thanks mom!), I decided it was definitely happening!

What I love most about it is it takes the scary “What is this magic!?” out of calligraphy. It has hundreds of alphabets and gives you the stroke by stroke for each letter of every one of them!(see right)

After reading the Intro and jumping to a page I thought looked doable this is what my first attempt looked like.

Not bad right? it certainly isn’t perfect but it looks like letters and you can read it so I am going to count this as a win.

I have to admit I had a little experience with dip pens before, but it was for illustration, and calligraphy is a whole different animal! All I could really transfer was knowing when to dip the pen…

Speaking of pens! I purchased this set from my local art store and it has been working great for me!

…and how could I resist getting some teal ink! (I know, no one’s surprised…)

My first practice project was to make valentines and had a blast! I never thought how much fun this was going to end up being. I did it initially just to save money, but this is something I see myself doing for a long time. I will keep you updated with my progress. Next I want to practice addressing envelopes, since that is mostly what I will need to do for the wedding.

What cool artsy projects have you been up to lately? Ever wanted to take a stab at calligraphy? Let me know in the comments!